About

My name is Aref. If that sounds strange to you it is because I was born in Iran, and even there it is not a very common name. I have been a nomad for a good part of my life, having also lived in Malaysia and Turkey after leaving Iran. Now I live a relatively quiet life working in the cybersecurity industry in Texas, which I have been calling home for over 7 years. The details of this life are not as fascinating as one might think but I consider myself incredibly lucky and immensely happy, owing that largely to the people in my life.

This picture is supposed to be a visual representation of the cybersecurity industry.

Ever since I was a kid, I had a passion for discussions and debates, particularly those concerned with the most pressing issues of our time. I didn’t have much knowledge as a teenager (like almost all teenagers) but that did not bother my confidence. In fact, as I later came to learn, confidence and ignorance are the most cheerful of couples, always singing together and holding hands. This phenomenon is so widespread among apes such as us that it even has a name, the Dunning-Kruger effect.

Dunning-Kruger Effect. It shows that the more ignorant a person in any field of interest, the more confident they are in their knowledge.

As the years of my life passed by, I, through various means, learned quite a great deal about the world and other belief systems and ideas different than those of mine. This process forced me to revisit many of my beliefs. I refined some of them, desperately tried to hang on to others, and completely scrapped some others. I adopted new ideas and worldviews so much so that, compared to just a decade ago, I no longer share some of the fundamental beliefs that shaped my thinking back then, including religious and political ones. This is a place to share many of these beliefs.

As I embark on this new hobby of mine called “blogging”, I fully realize that my current beliefs are also subject to change in the future, though some of them are standing on a much more solid ground than others. I also realize that this might wind up being a failed project in the sense that not many people will ever visit this website or know of it. However, in one sense I am confident that it will be a success. I have a place to immortalize my thoughts (to the extent that we humans can immortalize anything) and I will enjoy doing so even if I am the only audience.